Episode 45

The six men were a little wary after Su Jin taught them a lesson earlier, but they were a little emboldened by the weapons in their hands, so they started charging towards Su Jin.

These thugs were actually a really difficult lot to deal with. They made a lot of trouble for everyone in town but it was hard to actually charge them with any crimes. On top of that, they were locals and also had a lot of friends in high places. If they really committed a major crime, they could find a place to hide themselves fairly easily without being found for a long time. This made these local gangsters complacent and unafraid of the consequences, so they were also vicious when it came to fights.

If Su Jin didn’t have super strength, these fellows would have definitely been able to saw one of his legs off.

The six men were charging towards him with all their might, but they seemed to move very slowly to Su Jin. It was too hard to dodge their attacks since the corridor was very narrow, so Su Jin decided to just meet them head on.

He suppressed the violent streak surging in his heart, then slapped each of them once. All six of them ended up flinging their knives away and howled miserably as they clutched their painful cheeks.

The vampish woman was surprised that a nice and decent looking boy like Su Jin turned out to be such a fierce fighter. She shivered all over and quietly moved towards the door, hoping to secretly sneak back into the house.

Su Jin immediately blocked her way and said, “If these hooligans are the only help you can get, then I’d advise you to put an end to this matter right now. Of course, if you prefer to call the police, I’ll cooperate with the police too.”

There was no way she was calling the police. She knew that all these men dabbled in illegal dealings and calling the police would only get them into more trouble. Besides, since these men were well known gangsters around here, the police would definitely think that they were the ones at fault.

Just then, Gouzi’s phone started ringing. His eyes lit up when he saw the number, as if he just saw a ray of hope.

“Hello? Big bwotherr, the twobomakur at da shop is now at my sista’s hoose (the troublemaker at the shop is now at my sister’s house)! Come and sab us pwease (come and save us please)!” Both of Gouzi’s cheeks were swollen and he couldn’t speak clearly. Even Su Jin didn’t think the person on the other end of the line could understand.

“Pass it to me!” Su Jin walked over to Gouzi and stretched his arm out.

Gouzi quickly handed his phone over. He was genuinely afraid of Su Jin after he had slapped him twice. This wasn’t the first time Gouzi had gotten slapped, but this was definitely the first time someone had slapped him so hard that he lost teeth.

“Hello? This fucking Gouzi! What the fuck are you talking about? Speak properly!” said the man on the other line.

“Hello! I think what he was trying to say just now was that the person who hit them at the shop earlier is at his older sister’s place now, and he wants you to save them.”

“What?! Who are you?”

“I’m that person who hit them!”

The other end fell silent for a moment, then the man began to cackle. “Heh heh! What great timing! I was still thinking of ways to track you down. Those men over there are just my subordinates, so don’t make life difficult for them anymore. Come over to meet me and we can have a good chat!”

“What’s this, a trap?” Su Jin chuckled. These gangsters were clearly very confident that Su Jin couldn’t do anything about them.

“To put it simply, those two girls are now with me. You can choose whether you want to come over or not.” The other party hung up without waiting for Su Jin’s response, then sent an address via text message.

Su Jin narrowed his eyes and if one looked very closely, you could see that his eyelid was quivering very slightly but at very high speed. If Su Qing were here, she would know immediately that her brother was about to blow his top.

He could feel a fire burning furiously from deep within his heart and he started gnashing his teeth so loudly that everyone around him felt their scalps go numb in fear.

He took his phone out and tried calling Su Qing, but nobody picked up. The other party wasn’t lying when he said that he had the two girls.

“Gouzi, was it? Why don’t you take me to this place?” After a while, the gnashing sound stopped. Su Jin grabbed Gouzi by his ponytail and dragged him along.

Gouzi yelped in pain but didn’t dare to fight back. Once Su Jin was out of sight, everyone couldn’t help but shiver in fear. They felt like they had just been to hell and back.

“What’s going to happen to Gouzi?” asked the vampish woman with a trembling voice.

Yang Qiyan was a lot calmer than her. He took a deep breath and glared hard at his wife, but his words were still comforting, “Don’t worry! Gouzi’s boss is involved now, so everything will turn out okay. That young fellow is just asking for it.”

Meanwhile, Su Jin had hailed a cab, flung Gouzi into the car, then showed the address to the driver.

“Please drive us to this place!”

“Sure!” The driver didn’t recognize Su Jin, but he certainly recognized Gouzi. Gouzi was notorious around here and many cab drivers had been bullied by Gouzi before, including himself.

“You wittle bastherd (you little bastard), you wah ded meep (you’re dead meat)!”¹

Su Jin threw him a glance but didn’t say anything. After returning to the real world, he had been relying on this newly strengthened body of his to resolve matters with violence and hadn’t given the consequences much thought. Even though part of his violent tendencies were a result of the Demon Lord’s power taking over him, he was the one who made the decision to fight after all.

“I hope the girls will be alright!” thought Su Jin worriedly as he kept tapping his nose anxiously.

Gouzi didn’t dare to continue yelling at Su Jin since Su Jin was ignoring him, afraid that Su Jin might suddenly punch him again.

The car soon arrived at their destination. After paying the driver, Su Jin grabbed Gouzi’s hair again and dragged him out of the car. The cab driver watched all of this gleefully and cheered for Su Jin in his heart.

The address given was actually a warehouse, but the area had been abandoned for some time. The sound of dogs barking instantly filled the air as the two men approached the warehouse.

Su Jin didn’t barge in immediately. His rash way of dealing with things earlier had taught him not to do that anymore. While it was true that he was probably strong enough to kill everyone inside with his bare hands, these gangsters might hurt Su Qing and Yang Mengmeng if they were pushed into a corner.

“Saving the girls is the most important thing right now.” Once Su Jin was decided, he hit Gouzi on the back of his neck and Gouzi immediately lost consciousness. Su Jin then took his Handbook out and retrieved a small bottle from his inventory.

“Witch’s Concealing Potion!” The bottle in his hand right now was the concealing potion he had exchanged for after the first Challenge. This was the best thing he had for rescuing hostages.

He drank it down in one mouthful and both his body and his clothes became invisible. He walked towards the warehouse only after the potion had taken effect.

The large black dogs at the entrance immediately started barking like crazy when he walked in. He was invisible to others, but the dogs could still catch his scent, so he was still visible to the dogs in that sense.

“What are you stupid dogs barking about? So noisy! I’ll turn all of you into dinner someday!” A bald man walked over with a steel bat in hand. He whammed the steel bat hard against the metal pole that the dogs were chained to and the dogs didn’t dare to bark anymore.

Su Jin continued to walk further into the warehouse while observing his surroundings. The warehouse was extremely large and was divided into several rooms by simple metal sheets, like some sort of themed hotel. Each little room was occupied by a group of people who were either gambling or drinking and yelling away.

He used his phone to call Su Qing and listened quietly for her phone ring tone. His hearing had improved tremendously after being strengthened a second time, so now, he could pick up very faint sounds even in such a noisy place.

It took more than ten calls for him to finally locate Su Qing. The two girls were locked in a room far from everyone else. Two burly gangsters with arms covered in tattoos stood guard outside.

Su Jin used the side of his palm to knock out the two gangsters, then pushed the door open. Su Qing and Yang Mengmeng were sitting in a corner with their arms and legs tied up. Su Qing still looked fairly calm while Yang Mengmeng’s face was already covered in tears.

“Why do you keep crying? Don’t worry, my brother will definitely come and save us.” Su Qing was very certain that Su Jin would come and save them.

“They have so many men on their side, so if Brother Su comes to save us, he’ll be in great danger! It’ll be better if he doesn’t come!” Yang Mengmeng’s words made Su Jin smile. She was a very timid and frail girl, but she was kind and strong in her own way. She had decided to carry this burden on her own shoulders so that her mother could go through her medical treatment without having to worry about her daughter. That alone took great resilience.

Su Jin dragged the two unconscious gangsters into the room after he opened the door. The two girls instantly felt their hair stand on end when they saw this happening.

“Su Qing, it’s…it’s a ghost!” Yang Mengmeng was so frightened that she immediately moved as close as she could to Su Qing, as if she wished she could hide herself in Su Qing’s clothes.

Su Qing was normally a fairly bold girl, but her teeth started chattering in fear when she saw that some invisible force was dragging the two burly men into the room by their feet. Anybody with a weaker heart would have fainted by now.

“Oh dang! I’m still invisible to them,” thought Su Jin as he whacked his own forehead. But he had no way of making himself visible again. He had to wait until the potion’s effects wore off by itself.

So he made his voice much lower than usual and spoke like an old man, “Brave young ladies! You need not fear, for I am the kindhearted God of the Soil²(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudigong). In other words, the god watching over this particular area.] and I will bring you out from here.”

“God of the Soil?!” The two girls shuddered in fear and shut their eyes tightly when they first heard a voice from nowhere, but they slowly opened their eyes again after hearing what the voice said.

“That is correct! I am the God who watches over this place. Both of you are good girls and do not deserve to suffer like this. I shall save both of you, then punish these evildoers,” Su Jin continued in his mysterious voice.

“A god has come to save us!” The faces of both girls lit up. None of this made sense, but the two girls immediately chose to believe this God of the Soil was real.

Actually, the two of them just wanted to be rescued from this awful place. It didn’t matter who it was. If they heard such a story from someone else, they wouldn’t have believed it. But now, they were prepared to do anything as long as they could get out of here.

Su Jin used his Boning Knife to cut the ropes around their arms and legs, then whispered, “Let’s tie these two up first, then we’ll leave this place.”

After they were done tying up the two gangsters, Su Jin said to them, “When I say move, you two move. When I say stop, you two stop. Understand?”

“Yes, Almighty God of the Soil!” the two girls responded without any hesitation.